14 
30 Analyses were made of surface waters. 
10 ditto intermediate. 
36 ditto bottom. 
The results of these showed : — 
(1). That intermediate water contained less organic matter than either 
bottom or surface water, what was there being chiefly decomposable. 
(2.) That surface water contained more decomposable and less decom- 
posed matter than bottom water. 
In addition to the application of the permanganate test, several samples 
of water were collected, bottled, and subsequently analysed on shore by 
Dr. Frankland, who fully confirmed these results, and demonstrated the 
highly nitrogenous character of this organic matter. 
This fact has a very important bearing upon the question of the source 
of nutriment for the vast mass of animal life covering the abyssal sea bed. 
No evidence of the existence of Plant life at a greater depth than 30 
fathoms has yet been discovered, and yet the received doctrine is, that the 
generation of organic compounds from carbonic acid, water, and ammonia 
is the special attribute of vegetation, on which the lowest tribes of animals 
feed. Given the Protozoa in the abysses of the sea, every other tribe of 
animals can be supported, but on what do the Protozoa feed ? A possible 
solution of this difficulty was suggested in the spring of 1869 by Prof. 
Wyville Thomson, via., that just as many forms of Protozoa extracted 
either silica or carbonate of lime from the sea water to form their exquisite 
skeletons, so also they were supported by the absorption, through the sur- 
face of their jelly-like bodies, of the organic matter in solution in the sea. 
The demonstration of the existence of this organic matter, therefore, is 
an important step in confirmation of this theory. 
It may be remarked, in conclusion, that the results hitherto obtained 
in deep sea explorations by the Swedish and United States Governments, 
both as regards the existence of high forms of animal life at great depths, 
and the depression of temperature in the lower strata of the oceanic basins, 
(as far as they have yet been obtained,) fully confirm those of which some 
account has been attempted in the foregoing paper. 
